Granville Council received a glimpse of two, unrelated development projects proposed for Newark-Granville Road at its Sept. 19 meeting.

One is a medical facility; the other is a revised “empty-nester” residential community that would require annexation from Granville Township to the Village.

Denny Freudeman, president and CEO of Hplex & Ackley, made a presentation to council of a proposed medical facility to be located on 13.5 acres of property at the east end of Newark-Granville Road, or as he described, on “the last lot in Granville,” right at the Newark boundary line.

Freudeman said the $5.3 million, 19,500 square-foot orthopedics and sports medicine facility, “Would bring significant health care to Granville,” as well as a potential sports medicine provider for Granville and other area student athletes.

“We’ve worked hard to make this mesh into the community,” he said. “We worked hard to make it not look institutional.”

He said as the project worked its way through to recent planning commission approval, the building was reduced from two- to one-story and given a more rural visual aspect with lots of natural light.

Addressing council’s increased concerns about mounting traffic and development impacts on traffic in the Newark-Granville Road corridor, he noted the patient traffic would be staggered by nature, and release and arrivals of staff staggered by design.

But he also noted another traffic study is underway now that school has resumed.

The parking footprint has also been reduced to about 100 spaces on the site, as well.

He said the planning process also resulted in a commitment for a nature/walking path/bike trail that would be open to public use and an extension of existing neighboring pathways.

He said his firm had also met with neighbors in the area, sending them letters alerting them to planning meetings at which the project was scheduled to be discussed, “So we’ve been transparent.”

He said the facility would have a single entrance to-and-from Newark-Granville Road.

The project must come before council soon for consideration. If council green-lights the project, Freudeman said it’s hoped construction could begin Oct. 25 with a planned completion in December 2019.

Glenshire residential project returns

Despite having only four members present, and after some debate about whether to proceed with a vote (members Dan Finkelman, Matt McGowan and Mayor Melissa Hartfield were absent from the Sept. 18 meeting), council also approved another project to seek a pre-annexation hearing with the Licking County Commissioners.

As reported in August, Gerry Bird has revised plans for an “empty-nester” residential community to be located on Newark-Granville Road.

In August, council informally indicated they would entertain approval of a pre-annexation hearing for the project. At the Sept. 19 council meeting, council voted 4-0 to grant Bird approval to start the process rolling toward a possible annexation.

Law Director Michael King noted the pre-annexation hearing doesn’t finalize the project in any way and it would have to go through the usual planning process where council could further tweak the plan and community weigh in, as well.

Reacting to continued concerns on the part of some that the resulting residences might exceed the planned two-bedroom concept being proposed by Bird, he indicated he was accepting of deed restrictions to ensure the resulting units conform to stated plans.

The Glenshire project would result in about 30 units to be located on approximately 19 acres.

Bird has stated repeatedly he is interested in a project of similar type and scope to The Colony, which would be opposite Glenshire on Newark-Granville Road.

Bird also said he has spoken with school officials and they have not objected to the plan since any student enrollment impact is expected to be minimal, if any, he said.

Bird also noted the $14 million project would result in $125,000 in tax revenues to the school district.

He said traffic studies have also indicated the development would result in adding about one car per five- minute interval to Newark-Granville Road traffic volume.

Ohio 16 Corridor Development

Granville Council ended its evening with a discussion of a proposed Cooperative Economic Development Agreement being discussed between the Village, Township and Granville Schools.

The objective is to reach a CEDA that would layout terms and guidelines for an effort to dedicate the Ohio 16 corridor for research and technology development.

At a recent meeting between local stakeholders, it was agreed each governmental body would determine it’s “must haves” and “can’t haves” for such an agreement as a first step toward a joint agreement.

At its Sept. 17 meeting, the Granville Board of Education formalized its list, including a desire to have a voice in any development controlling body that results, as well as the need to develop the area commercially, and not in a residential manner.

After some discussion, Granville Council determined it would need to have guidelines in place stipulating the terms and conditions for extension of utilities, the mechanism to pay for those investments, and similar to the Board of Education’s goal, some kind of governing body to conduct oversight of the development process before projects move into a formal consideration and voting process before Granville Township Trustees.

The second meeting toward the potential CEDA agreement is scheduled for 6 p.m., Sept. 27 at The Granville Senior Center.